Dads want more diaper changing tables

Jun. 24, 2014
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A father and a baby. / Getty Images/iStockphoto

by Jolie Lee, USA TODAY Network

by Jolie Lee, USA TODAY Network

Two bills in the California Legislature would make baby diaper changing tables as accessible to men as they are to women.

"This bill reflects our modern families now," said California state Sen. Ricardo Lara, sponsor of one of the bills, in an interview with USA TODAY Network.

Lara's bill would require facilities with changing tables make these tables accessible to both genders. This means having a changing table in a men's restroom if there is one in a women's, or having a family restroom.

The bill would apply to newly constructed or refurbished facilities and is likely to be up for a vote by the full state Assembly in August, Lara said.

WHY NOW?

Lara said he thought of introducing such a bill after receiving calls from same-sex couples who wanted changing tables in men's restrooms. The population affected by the bill is much broader, he said.

The other bill, sponsored by state Sen. Lois Wolk, would take the requirement a step further and require that existing facilities make changing tables equally accessible.

"We want to be involved, but why isn't society stepping up and evolving with us?" said Doyin Richards, a Los Angeles father who blogs at Daddy Doin' Work.

Richards said he has had to change his two daughters' diapers in the trunk of his car or in women's restrooms because there was no changing table in the men's restroom.

He said he calls restaurants ahead of time to make sure they have a changing table in the men's restroom.

The website Changing Table Locator lists more than 3,000 facilities nationwide that are "family-friendly" for changing diapers, only accessible to women or have no changing table.

Jacob Smithers, an Illinois stay-at-home dad who helps run the website, said he realized the lack of changing tables when he had to change his baby's diaper a couple of years ago in a Chicago restaurant.

There was no table in either men's or women's restroom, Smithers said, so he resorted to laying out paper towels and changing his 6-month-old son on the bathroom floor.

Smithers said that if a restaurant has high chairs, it should have changing tables. "What kid who sits in a high chair does not wear diapers?" he said.

The next step for Changing Table Locator is to build a Foursquare-like mobile app that allows users to check into locations and indicate whether or not changing tables are available.